Partizan, Falconer's Flight

I kind of see this as a mid-weight version of the Beavertown Quelle Saison - a hoppy saison that could almost be a super fizzy pale ale. Pepper and rainwater nose, dominant taste was lemon and grapefruit, bit of fresh, fat blade grass, a high carbonation that faded quickly down the drink. Not a great deal of the saison farmhouse essence as such. Nice dry finish. Again - drank from the fridge, possibly more funky when warmer. Top beer.

Celt Experience, 613 Années

Not 100% to my tastes this one from Celt. The sweet, sort of winey/grape/raisin nose is something I've come to associate with out of date hops (although I'm not sure if that's correct). The taste was piney (mild hoppage), a bit orangey + a bitter finish. I was expecting higher carbonation. My first bière de garde - I expected a malty saison, this felt like a sort of malty, spicy, slightly past it's best ipa, I suppose. This type not really for me.

Beavertown, Quelle Saison

A very light yellow pour, tangy satsuma nose, plus pineapple and grapefruit. Taste follows - mouthfeel is a very fizzy and very light fruity pale ale. There were some saison elements in there (just about) - some straw and pepper etc - possibly more pronounced at cellar temperature than straight out of the fridge. Good bitter after. I'd session this. (Imagine if they put this in a can.....!)

Beavertown, Ger'onimo

Drunk April 12th, photographed June 18th. Best of the Beavertown BA's for me. Nice whiskey upfront on the nose, damp leaves/mineral water and some meat. Good booze on the taste, slight dryness (possibly the whiskey influence?) in the finish. A woody spice going on in this, possibly a little nutty? Decent untunctuous mouthfeel. Nice heavy body. My impy stout nemesis, the dreaded vanilla sweetness, crept in towards the end, but not too much thank goodness.

Partizan, Stout

Like Kernel, Partizan don't eff about with their beer nomenclature. I'm tickled by their simply calling this drink a 'stout'. (I'm sure other breweries would be tempted to add unnecessary prefixes in a bid to make it sound 'more exciting'.) Truth be told, I was excited to see the single word on a blue Partizan bottle rather than the 3 word 'FES' (I'll drink an FES but prefer my stouts less sweet and fizzy) - I'm not sure there's been one before?

A shade lighter in colour than your typical imperial stout. Taste was a satisfying blemd of the meat/choc/coffee/licorice (liquorice sp?) thing with a decent bitter finish. Just a fraction light (for me) of being a full blown imperial stout (this bottle was an 8.5%, I think the current stout is milder at 7% or so). I am absolutely fiending for their stout porter, doubt I'll get one though. We watched 12 Years A Slave when I had this. This film is not a date movie.

Dark Star, Imperial Stout

Sussex's Dark Star offer a mixed bag. I love Hophead and the wonderfully off balance nonsense of their Six Hop (bottle and cask), but Revelation (bottle, cask and keg) was so-so and this one didn't tick my impy boxes I'm afraid.

Whilst it committed the cardinal sin of being over-carbonated, I was reasonably into the English hop aroma (tinged with bananas possibly?) and the heavy bitterness. It was sweet but not syrupy and there was a little nail varnish remover in the finish too. A shame, as i really wanted to be into this.

Crate, IPA

Disappointing drink from Crate. I think this may have been passed it's best. Hop degradation? Sugary nose, flavour was mostly toffee. There was some sort of cleanliness overriding those malts, but it was largely tasteless. A shame, as I sampled this on keg at Westow House and it was a cloudy and pungent delight. The last photo above is of the Crate Brewery beer garden from a series commissioned in Hackney Wick last year.

Weird Beard Co, Single Hop Series No. 4: Citra Pilsner

I wouldn't have picked this as a pilsner in a blind test, but a good beer from Weird Beard nonetheless. Cat wee nose, big citrus taste. Gentle lasting bitterness that turns into a pleasing dryness. Quite like these hoppy lagers/pilsners. (This bottle was drunk back in March.)

De Molen, Rasputin

Impy stout from big boys De Molen. Rainwater and dried mushroom nose. Bitter aftertaste from the saaz hops (maybe), saves it from being too sweet.